1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capsule medical apparatus, and particularly to a capsule medical apparatus that is disposed in a test subject and acquires information on the inside of the test subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopes have been widely used in a medical field and the like. In particular, endoscopes in a medical field are primarily used to observe the inside of living organisms. One type of the endoscopes described above that has been proposed in recent years is a capsule endoscope that is swallowed by a test subject so that the capsule endoscope is disposed in a body cavity, the capsule endoscope capable of picking up images of subjects while moving along the body cavity through peristaltic movement, and sending the picked-up images of the subjects to the outside as a picked-up image signal.
An exemplary apparatus having the substantially same function as that of the capsule endoscope described above is an in-vivo image pickup apparatus described in Published Japanese translation of PCT international application No. 2003-526268.
Published Japanese translation of PCT international application No. 2003-526268 discloses the configuration of the apparatus with a built-in switch capable of on/off switching of a power supply for various sections of the apparatus using a magnetic field supplied from the outside of the apparatus. Specifically, the apparatus disclosed in Published Japanese translation of PCT international application No. 2003-526268 has a configuration in which, for example, when the apparatus is stored (not used) in a package with a magnet, the switch is turned off, and the switch is not turned on until the apparatus is removed (used) from the package with a magnet.
However, the apparatus disclosed in Published Japanese translation of PCT international application No. 2003-526268 has a problem of a large size of the apparatus body because the apparatus has the switch capable of on/off switching of various sections of the apparatus using a magnetic field supplied from the outside of the apparatus, as described above.
Furthermore, to efficiently perform the capsule endoscope function of picking up images of subjects while moving along the body cavity through peristaltic movement, and sending the picked-up images of the subjects to the outside as a picked-up image signal, the apparatus also needs to be configured in such a way that power consumption of the capsule endoscope can be reduced when the capsule endoscope is not used.
The present invention has been made in view of the above respects and aims to provide a capsule medical apparatus that can be reduced in size and can reduce power consumption when the apparatus is not used.